Scholars working on Asian cities have argued that urban expansion in the region is taking a unique shape. In contrast to “suburbanization” which suggests a more or less unidirectional “urban sprawl” phenomenon due to the expansion of serviced land, the suburban transition in Southeast Asia, for instance, takes a hybrid form which stems from a complex interface between the urban and the rural. This talk argues that such a hybrid formation is not unique to the mega urban-region of Asia. Instead, it is a dominant feature of the urban core of some cities in Asia which, as I will show, is a result of “semi-urbanization.” Focusing on Jakarta, this talk will show how the irregular settlement known as the kampung constitutes an important part of semi-urbanization, and how an understanding of its persistence, location and functionality in the city would allow us to comprehend the peculiar suburban formation in the region.